Exit polls give Clinton victory in West Virginia

Tuesday 13 May 2008 20.55 EDT
First published on Tuesday 13 May 2008 20.55 EDT

Questions about Barack Obama's ability to win over white, working-class voters were raised again last night when Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in West Virginia, one of the last contests of a prolonged primary season.

Exit polls last night indicated she had won the state easily, by a margin of two to one. But in spite of her win, she is too far behind Obama in terms of delegates - who will decide the Democratic nomination - to catch him.

More worrying for Obama is that a breakdown of the polling exposed divisions in the party. The exit polls showed that 35% of Clinton supporters would vote for the Republican John McCain in the November general election rather than Obama.

With a growing lead in the delegate count, Obama is treating the primary race as, in effect, over even though there are five more contests to be fought between next week and the last one on June 3.

There were 28 delegates at stake last night but, in spite of his poor showing, he would still take a share of them under the party proportional representation system. The delegates Clinton picked up will not outweigh 30 superdelegates - Congress members and others with automatic voting rights - he has picked up over the last week to her two.

In spite of US media fatigue with the Democratic campaign that has been running since January, voters show little sense of boredom. Turn-out in West Virginia was the highest on record.

Clinton held a victory party in Charleston, West Virginia, but Obama, anticipating a heavy defeat, ignored the primary. He took the day off on Sunday and made only a fleeting stop in the state on Monday.

Instead, he is concentrating on laying the ground for the November general election. He went to Missouri, a midwest swing state.

In a speech in Cape Girareau, he predicted that divided Democrats would re-unite in November. "There is a lot of talk these days about how the Democratic party is divided," he said. "But I'm not worried, because I know that we'll be able to come together quickly behind a common purpose."

West Virginia is an overwhelmingly white state. One in four of the votes cast in West Virginia were by voters over 60, an age group that in previous primaries has tended to opt for Clinton. About one in four have had no education beyond school and more than half of those voting were in families with incomes of $50,000 (£25,000) or less.

Clinton has generally done better among poorer, less well-educated voters, and those living in rural areas.

She should do well in the next primary next Tuesday in Kentucky and again in Puerto Rico early next month. But Obama is expected to be more competitive in Oregon next week and in South Dakota and Montana early next month.

Clinton is staying in the race mainly to maximise concessions she can wring from Obama. A pressing concession is for the Obama campaign to help her out of her financial problems, as has happened in past primary seasons.

It was disclosed on Monday that she is carrying a campaign debt of more than $20m.